IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE I5 



It was the success of the corn crop that made it possible for the 

 eager colonists to live and to become the Pilgrim Fathers. The ex- 

 periences of the Connecticut colonists did not differ, for as one his-' 

 torian says,". . . by selling them corn vvlien pinched with famine 

 they relieved their distress and prevented them from perishing in a 

 strange land and uncultivated wilderness." ^ 



Significant also is the statement of Capt. John Smith in his History 

 of Virginia: ". . . such was the weakness of this poor common- 

 wealth, as had not the salvages fed us we directlie had starved. And 

 this relyfe, most gracious queen (Anne), was broug'ht by this lady 

 Pocahontas ; . . . during the time of two or three years, shee next 

 under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from 

 death, famine and utter confusion." - 



Corn saved the colony as it had others before and after Smith's- 

 time, and as in other instances, our historian naively remarks, to 

 obtain it, ". . . many were billited among the savages." ^ 



And thus it is that the maize plant was the bridge over which 

 English civilization crept, tremblingly and uncertainly, at first, then 

 boldly and surely to a foothold and a permanent occupation of 

 America. 



II EARLY RECORDS OF CORN CULTIVATION AMONG THE 

 IROQUOIS AND COGNATE TRIBES 



As early as 1535, Jacques Cartier, pushing his way up the St Law- 

 rence, saw fields of waving corn on the island of Hochelaga where 

 he found a thriving village occupied by Iroquois people. He left us 

 the record that these Indians had large fields and that they stored 

 the harvested corn in garrets " at the tops of their houses." * Car- 

 tier also described the Hochelagans as " given to husbandrie . . . 

 but are no men of great labour." ^ 



Nearly every explorer who left a detailed record of his voyages 

 recorded in a minute way his impressions of Indian agriculture and 

 particularly of their cultivation of corn. Henry Hudson repeatedly 

 mentioned in his records the maize which he saw on his voyage up 

 the river which takes its name fromi him. Recording the events of 



1 Trumbull. History of Connecticut, i -.47. 



2 Smith, Capt. John. History of Virginia. Lond. 1632. p. 121. 

 ^ Ibid. 2 -.229. Richmond reprint. 1819. 



^Hakluyt. Voyages. Lond. 1810. 3:272. 

 5 Ibid. 



